PROVINCE OF BOMBAYWESTERN INDIA AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION Vs. WESTERN INDIA AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATIONTHE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL AND SATYA MANGULA VENKTRAMANRAO BHUPAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal from a judgment of Mr. Justice Coyajce ordering the issue of a writ of prohibition against the Industrial Tribunal set up by the Government of Bombay. It seems that a dispute between the Western India Automobile Association and its workers started about November 1946, and on November 9, 1946, the President of the Western India Automobile Association Staff Union served a notice upon the President of the Association setting out various demands of the employees. On December 4, 1946, the President of the Association informed the President of the Union that they were not prepared to recognise the Union or to carry on any correspondence with it. On December 30, 1946, the President of the Union by a letter informed the President of the Association that unless the demands of the workers were accepted, the members of the Union would strike work on January 2, 1947, and pursuant to this notice there was a strike of the members of the Union starting on January 2, 1947. On January 22, 1947, the Association gave notice to those on strike that unless they resumed their duties by the 27th they would be deemed to be dismissed from the day they went on strike, and on February 11, 1947, the services of those on strike were terminated. On May 28, 1947, the Union made fresh demands upon the Association, and on August 11, 1947, the Government of Bombay issued a notification under Section 7 of the Industrial Disputes Act, constituting an Industrial Tribunal consisting of Mr. Vyas, and on September 17, 1947, under Section 10 of that Act, the Government referred to the Tribunal for its adjudication the various disputes which were pending between the Association and the Union, and the material one to which I may draw attention was whether such of the members of the Association staff who joined the strike at the date of its commencement on January 2, 1947, and/or thereafter should be reinstated and paid back wages or salaries with all allowances, bonuses, etc. , at the increased rates as may be fixed by the Tribunal, from January 2, 1947, till the date of reinstatement, and/or such other relief which the Tribunal may grant. I may point out that subsequently in place of Mr. Vyas, Mr. M. C. Shah constituted the Industrial Tribunal.

(2.) THE Association challenged the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to inquire into this dispute and they filed a petition on November 15, 1947, for a writ of cetiiorari, in the alternative, for a writ of prohibition, and in further alternative, for an order under Section 45 of the Specific Relief Act, against the Tribunal, preventing it from proceeding with the investigation of this dispute. Before Mr. Justice Coyajee it was contended by the Association that the Industrial Disputes Act did not apply to the Association at all and therefore the dispute between the Association and its workers could not be referred to the Tribunal, It was also contended by the petitioners that in any event the question of reinstatement of the dismissed employees could not be considered and investigated by the Tribunal. THE learned Judge held that the Industrial Disputes Act did apply to the Western India Automobile Association, but he held that it was not competent to the Tribunal to consider the question of the reinstatement of the dismissed employees, and therefore he issued a writ of prohibition against the Tribunal, restraining it from entering1 upon any inquiry or giving any direction on the question of reinstatement. From this order an appeal is preferred by the Province of Bombay, and also there is an appeal by the Western India Automobile Association, inasmuch as the learned Judge held that the Tribunal had jurisdiction to investigate the disputes except for the question of reinstatement.

(3.) NOW, the first contention of Mr. Kolah is that the Western India Automobile Association is not an industry at all to which the Industrial Disputes Act can apply. "industry" is defined by the Act under Section 2, Sub-clause (j), and the definition is : Industry means any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture, or calling of employers and includes any calling, service, employment, handicraft, or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen. Mr. Kolah says that the Western India Automobile Association does not carry on any business, trade or undertaking with a view to making profits. It is an association whose sole function is to render services to its members and it exists for the purpose of encouraging and developing the automobile movement in Western India. Mr. Kolah contends that it is only when an undertaking is carried on with a view to making profit that it is constituted an industry for the purposes of the Act. I see no reason, looking to the plain words of the section, why such a narrow and restricted meaning should be given to the expression "industry. " There is no indication in the section itself that the undertaking referred to in the definition clause must be an undertaking carried on for the purpose of making profit. It may be that as far as a business, trade or manufacture is concerned, every one of those has to be carried on with the profit motive. But as far as an undertaking is concerned, it is something different from business, trade or manufacture, and there is no reason why every undertaking, in order to fall under that sub-clause, must be something done with a view to making profit. The expression "calling" is also sufficiently wide to include in it activities not necessarily concerned with the profit motive. What is really emphasised in this sub-section is the relationship of employers and workers. If you have an undertaking carried on by employers and workers and if in that undertaking a dispute takes place, then you have a dispute in an industry contemplated by the statute, and it cannot be denied that in this particular case both the employers who are the Association and the workers who are the other party to the dispute are engaged in the undertaking known as the Western India Automobile Association which exists for the purpose of rendering services to its members.